Wage Claims

Law Offices of Matthew L. Taylor represents employees making employment and wage claims against their employers for unpaid wages, failure to pay minimum wages, failure to pay overtime wages, unpaid meal breaks, unpaid rest breaks, and other wage and employment claims under California law

California law provides strong protections for workers who have not been paid proper wages or benefits, including the following:

California’s minimum wage law is higher than the federal minimum wage, and California’s minimum wage generally applies to all employees in California. An employee who is not paid at least California minimum wage may bring a claim against the employer for back wages, penalties, and interest.

California law provides that most employees are entitled to at least one 30-minute, off-duty meal break for each working shift. An employee who does not receive such a meal break may bring a claim against the employer for one hour of wages for each working shift in which the meal break was not provided, together with a claim for penalties and interest.

California law provides that most employees are entitled to one ten-minute, off-duty, paid rest break for each four hours of work. Thus, for an 8-hour shift, the employee is entitled to receive two of these rest breaks. An employee who does not receive proper rest breaks may bring a claim against the employer for one hour of wages for each working shift in which the rest break was not provided, together with a claim for penalties and interest.

California law generally provides that most non-exempt employees are entitled to receive overtime pay for any work over 8 hours in a day and over 40 hours in a week. This overtime pay should be at 1.5 times the employee’s regular wage. (Additional overtime at twice the regular rate of pay may accrue after exceptionally-long shifts or work weeks.). An employee who does not receive proper overtime pay may bring a claim against the employer for the unpaid overtime wages, together with a claim for penalties and interest.

Law Offices of Matthew L. Taylor has successfully brought both individual and class action claims on behalf of employees who were not paid proper wages. Individual claims are brought on behalf of a single person or a small group of people. Class action claims are brought on behalf of a large group of employees with similar claims. Some notable employment and wage cases handled by the firm include: